What Are the Best Cat Rewards?

Written and verified by the lawyer Francisco María García

Last update: 27 December, 2022

Cat rewards are an excellent way to positively reinforce your animal’s behavior. In today’s article, you’ll learn about the best ones for your feline companion and their importance in the training of your animal.

Positive reinforcement – what is it and how it works

Positive reinforcement is basically the encouragement to learn various skills, activities, and even tricks. It’s about responding positively to desired behaviors or actions. Also, it facilitates assimilation and encourages repetition.

Praising and rewarding your animal when they do something you approve of is a must for training them. Thus, it’ll be a more efficient way to teach them the appropriate behavior to follow. You’ll also improve their ability to learn and socialize.

In order to use positive reinforcement in cats and dogs, you need to follow some established criteria. For instance, you must make them believe they’ll get a reward for certain behavior.

You must also offer a short-term reward. In other words, the animal shouldn’t have to wait long to receive such a reward. This is because they must immediately connect it to a specific behavior. That is, you must positively reinforce as a response to the desired behavior ASAP.

Cat Rewards – why use positive reinforcement

The old school corrective type of “training” is based on instilling fear and distress to promote the desired behavior. Obedience, in these cases, is the result of a process of emotional and physical wear, and it harms an animal’s well-being.

Opting for positive reinforcement means excluding violent behavior. There are many benefits to it, and you’ll avoid unnecessary stress. A domineering attitude will only hurt your cause, and a positive attitude will help strengthen your bond of friendship with your pet.

Preserving the physical and emotional integrity of your animal is a must for healthy coexistence and subsequent training. So, positive reinforcement is obviously far superior to its negative counterpart.

The three best all-ages cat rewards

Cat rewards don’t have to be material goods such as toys and edible treats. There are many ways to make your cat happy. So, here are three helpful positive reinforcement measures to try out on your animal friend.

1. Affection

Are cats too independent to receive and/or show affection?

Actually, any demonstrations and recognition that come in the form of petting are great rewards for cats of any age. This is because they help reaffirm the love and dedication between a person and their pet.

To please them even more, try to show affection in their feline language. That is squinting your eyes while looking at them lovingly.

2. Games and toys

Cats are very intelligent and love to play with their owners. Thus, encouraging fun activities is a great way to offer positive reinforcement. In addition to training them, games will keep them active and they won’t become overweight — with all its undesirable health consequences.

3. Sweets

It’s true that cats are highly demanding when it comes to food. So, use whatever they like as a reward.

It’s important to not to overdo the amount and frequency of these treats. Excessive snacking can lead to obesity and it could also de detrimental to your pet’s dental health.

A basic method for offering cat rewards

Feline training requires consistency and intelligence to optimize positive reinforcement. You must know how and when to offer cat rewards so as to encourage learning and deter unwanted behavior.

Regular cat rewards:

You should provide these treats regularly as an incentive to learn and to maintain positive behavior. You can offer them frequently but make sure they don’t spoil your animal’s balanced diet.

There are many options available on the market such as dry liver treats and low-fat crunchies.

Extra cat rewards

You must only offer these treats on special occasions, and this is why we refer to them as an extra. They’ll help reinforce a difficult or highly valued behavior or a task that might deserve special recognition.

Surely, each person will know how to come up with the perfect treat to suit the palate of their most special cat.

Healthy snacks

Healthy treats are a growing market demand for cats. These are great options for any cat and not only for those who are already obese. As you can see, they’re also a good preventive measure.

Cat rewards are important for an animal’s training. Knowing how to use them can improve your coexistence with your feline friend and encourage socialization.